Dear Dr.Stevens, As a devoted lover of poetry, every year I look forward to seeing the nominee list for ‘’Best Irish Poet’’ This prestigious award has never undermined my expectations and each year I agree completely with your choice, However this time I would like to recommend Irish poet Derek Mahon for the award. Mahon is a creative and innovative poet who is true to his Irish heritage yet has the skill to broaden his poetry from our shores to a worldwide experience that everyone can related to. His poetry contain such hidden depth which need be acknowledged and appreciated and what better way to praise him but awarding him with not only a prise but your recognition and expertise.

Derek Mahon has a distinctive style to his poetry. He conveys many impressive techniques and one of these is his ability to give a voice to the voiceless using poetry. Mahon does this in such a deep way using metaphorical imagery, similes and personification that the reader ends up entranced and bewildered as to how both the initial scene and the actual meaning are remotely connected. Mahon does this in many poems including ‘’As It Should Be’’, ‘’After The Titanic’’ and ‘’Antarctica’’ however it is most effective in his most famous poem, ‘’A Disused Shed in Co.Wexford’’. This striking poem discusses ‘mushrooms’ he stumbled upon in a ‘’a disused shed’’ whilst roaming around a ‘’Burnt out hotel’’ in ‘’Co.Wexford’’ , Using his exemplary literary skill Mahon succeeds to convey the voice of ‘’Peruvian miners’’, Those in the concentration camp of ‘’Treblinka’’ and the abused ‘’lost people of Pompeii’’. He eliminates the naivety that many would associate with this humble ‘shed’ of fungi and replaces it with a deeper understanding and awareness of what obviously happens every day around us, Just like ‘’Mushrooms’’ growing in a field nearby....

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...I agree with this assessment of Bishop’s poetry. Her poems on the syllabus certainly pose interesting questions about identity, awareness and one’s place in the world, indeed the universe, and they do so by means of a unique style. This style is influenced by Bishop’s acute awareness of the poet’s craft and her ability to work with both traditional forms (sestina and sonnet, for instance) and free verse.
The questions that interested me most are those posed in ‘Questions of Travel’. These fascinated me because Bishop dedicated so much of her life to travel, yet in this poem she questions the motives behind travel and exploration. One stylistic feature that is characteristic of Bishop is the conversational tone and it is evident in the opening lines, as she states ‘There are too many waterfalls here’. The question raised in my mind is ‘How can there be “too many” waterfalls?’ Surely the waterfalls are a sight of natural splendour? Yet, reading on, we see that everything in this place of natural beauty over-powers the poet - the streams are crowded, they hurry ‘too rapidly’, there are ‘so many’ clouds. Why is this? She says that the streams and clouds ‘keep travelling, travelling’ and this poses the question of her own travels; has travel become as monotonous as the relentless waterfalls or is it a type of addiction or compulsion for the poet? This question poses more questions when we consider the poet’s alcoholism and the part played by addiction in her life.
The...

...figure. Here, Mahon adopts the persona of Bruce Ismay, President of the White Star Line, who survived the Titanic tragedy which claimed so many lives. Ismay was vilified at a subsequent hearing into the disaster and isolated himself from society. Mahon achieves a remarkable feat in this poem. He gives an authentic voice to Ismay without allowing the poem to become an apology or justification for his behaviour. In his opening statement, Ismay claims, “I sank as far that night as any hero.” Mahon’s skilful manipulation of language means that this rings hollow. Ismay didn’t sink at all– this is the reason he has been shunned. Later in the poem, the sinking of the ship is memorably evoked through onomatopoeic and alliterative phrases: “a pandemonium of prams, pianos, sideboards, winches, boilers bursting and shredded ragtime.” The literal sinking of the boat is compared to Ismay’s personal sinking in the penultimate line, “My poor soul screams out in the starlight, hear breaks loose and rolls down like a stone.” Again, Mahon undermines Ismay’s version of events. Any man still employing a gardener, as we learn in the middle section of the poem, does not deserve to be considered in the same light as those who perished in an icy sea. His suggestion that he is suffering as much does not carry any weight. By the time I read Ismay’s final word, “Include me in your lamentations,” I had lost all sympathy for him and could see him only as a...

...History is a subject which preoccupies Mahon in many of his most important poems. I would choose particular poems because of his view towards our history and the past. His poetry presents history in a very negative light. Mahon sees the past as 'deep-delving, dark, deliberate you would say'. In the poem Rathlin Mahon recalls historical violence on an island that is now a 'sanctuary' of peace and 'through with history'. However this island in the past has witnessed 'unspeakable violence' with the massacre of the Rathlin women. He speaks of the 'unnatural silence' on the island gradually becoming 'natural' over the years through the island not being inhabited. Come the end of the poem Mahon is unsure 'whether the future lies before us or behind'. Whether the violence is now behind us or is violence a continuing part of our future?
In Mahons Poem Kinsale there is a welcome and a long awaited moment of light and hope. The opening line of this poem was an optimistic thought from Mahon himself by saying, 'the kind of rain we knew is a thing of the past'. The use of imagery in this poem is both vivid and warming. The image of 'Yachts tinkling and dancing in the bay' is a striking image as it is both beautiful and positively uplifting. The sun is a direct contrast to the rain. The sun is an image of hope and the 'future forbidden to no-one' while the rain is the constant reminder of a violence...

...Four Poems by DerekMahon
INTRODUCTION
DerekMahon belongs to the same generation of Northern Ireland poets as Seamus Heaney. But, whereas many of Heaney's poems are rooted firmly in the rural landscape of Ulster where he grew up, Mahon's poems reflect his childhood spent in Belfast. His familiar places were the streets of the city, the Harland and Wolff shipyard where his g-andfather and father worked, and the flax-spinning factory where his mother worked. Later on, Mahon would come to study at Trinity College Dublin and from there he spread his wings to travel and work in many different places, from France, Canada and America, to London and Kinsale in Co. Cork.
, •"DAY TRIP TO DONEGAL"
Tie shift, in both meaning and feeling, that :sxes place between the first and final lines of ~ s poem makes it memorable. The title :=e~s ordinary: Day Trip to Donegal suggests :- :~ :od days out at the seaside or even a school trip with classmates and teachers.
~--~ opening stanza is conversational in tone. I :-- ,al at his seaside destination, the poet s n familiar surroundings. There were
to be seen" and "as ever" the hills "a deeper green/Than anywhere in the : : - seems at this point that we are r: - r :: share a pleasant day at the seaside in Donegal with the poet. However, just as we . - rev. ~"~ comfortable with this expectation, -:::••• appears. We are disturbed by the 2. Deration in the final...

...thought provoking insights and displays the mastery of language and style’’
The poetry of DerekMahon is extremely thought provoking. As an only child, he observed and thought a lot about the people and events going on around him and this is reflected in his poetry. His keen eye for detail has earned him a significant reputation and he is widely regarded as one of the most talented poets of the twentieth century. He combines conversational narrative with intelligence and wit, allowing one to become aware of some deep seriousness’s through these provoking insights. He has the rare ability to engage excellently with the world beyond himself and this is achieved by seeing people and places with an alternate viewpoint. He discusses these people and places using vivid imagery, showing us clearly his mastery of language and style. In all of his poetry, we see the creation of art out of words. He has been described as a ‘’scrupulous craftsman,’’ with every word in his poetry specially picked for a specific reason.
In the poem ‘’Grandfather,’’ Mahon paints a curious and thought provoking picture of his grandfather. These thoughts are provoked from the very first line through is mysterious use of language, ‘’they brought him in on a stretcher from the world.’’ It is unclear from this, if the ‘’stretcher’’ is physical or metaphorical. The mystery created surrounding the grandfather is just what Mahon wants. We see how the...

...“Speaking of DerekMahon...”
Write out the text of a talk you might give on the poetry of DerekMahon.
Fellow Classmates, I would like to introduce you today to the Poetry of DerekMahon. I must say I really like his poetry. Whereas too many poets are content simply to just go on and on about the “feelings”, Mahon engages with the world beyond himself. His poems deal with history and its victims, detailing their plight in a way that I found to be both compassionate and truly moving. I also liked the way his work focuses on individuals from history who are trapped in extreme and desperate situations, whose minds are at the “end of their tether”. Paradoxically, perhaps, by shifting to focus away from himself and by avoiding the discussion of his own feelings, Mahon produces work that bristles with compassion, sympathy and empathy.
One of the things I most liked about his poems was the fact that so many of them are spoken by people other than the poet himself. In “As it should be”, for instance, we are brought into the mind of a cold-blooded kill who “hunted the mad bastard through bog, moorland, rock, to the starlit west”. Mahon allows us, chillingly, to see this brutal and murderous act from the perpetrator’s point of view and to perhaps even begin to understand how his desire to protect his children might have led him to commit this crime. All he...

...brilliance of the language the and poetic style the thing that impeded my thoughts was the question posed at the closing stanza of the poem, will we let the past influence us now and commit such acts of devastations again or will we learn that these acts were horrific and come to more peaceful solutions when tackling the divisions now.
The poems of DerekMahon have rewarded me with an experience to admire jointly his poetry as well as himself and the area which he grew up in, Northern Ireland. He is mastered in the art to describe elegant scenes, also to give impressions of places with a charm, which gives the scene both depth and beauty. He is able to remove himself from the present and speak without inhibition of it, removing bias, although there is an urge to when dealing with the more volatile topics. When asked do I feel that reading the poetry of DerekMahon is a rewarding experience, I say it is a thoroughly rewarding experience for all of any age, the poems of Mahon also contain a great style of imagery and sense of place, these poems also pose the question of past can shape the present.
With ‘A Disused Shed in Co. Wexford’ Mahon elaborates eloquently how suppression and violence from the past have detrimental effects on the present. ‘As It Should Be’ explores the history of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland and this interlinks with ‘Ecclesiastes’ is showing bigotry in...

...The Poetry of DerekMahonDerekMahon is a poet of outstanding skill and exceptional ability. I enormously enjoy Mahon because of this. He takes on piles of different personnae as a poet. It is clear to see that people and places are a prevailing feature of his poems. The six of his poems I have studied for my Leaving Certificate are mainly based around a person or a place . Mahon writes about a broad array of themes in a variety of tones.In his poems his language is used sparingly but effectively.
Person - I found the poetry of DerekMahon to be unique and I look up to his power to imagine how other people think and feel.Mahon evokes various human personalities as he tries to make us understand his idea of how a character feels.Captain Oates, of the poem Antarctica, sacrifices his life to save the life of the other members of his expiditon team.He merely announces , “I am just going outside and may be some time” He is therefore becoming a hero for putting the welfare of others before him . -A person who Mahon also writes about is Bruce Ismay who is the complete oppisite of Oates.After the Titanic is a telling of his life and feelings after the sinking of his pride and glory The Titanic when he cowardly put his life before others by getting off the sinking ship. He is only a shadow of his former self by his survival of the tragic sinking " I...